Young Eager to Play in Camp Randall

HN Staff

11/08/2005

Albert Young was committed to Wisconsin, but then had a change of heart and signed with the Iowa Hawkeyes. He was able to get to know some of the Wisconsin people more personally, including head coach Barry Alvarez. Young talks about getting the chance to play at Wisconsin for the first time.

Q: What do you need to work on this week to get a win?

Albert Young: As an offense, just finishing the game out. We pretty much played good the entire game instead of the last few minutes. The entire team needs to finish it out; we have not been doing that the last two weeks. There is not much we can do different in practice; we just have to keep doing what we are doing and hopefully the ball bounces our way.

Q: Can you put a finger on not finishing in second half?

Young: It's tough. It's a combination of what other teams are doing…well, I don't want to say that either, because we are a good team. I don't really have anything to say for that. We just have to keep up our tempo.

Q: Does it make it more puzzling the way you start games?

Young: Yeah. It seems like these last two weeks, the first two or even third drives we can move the ball. It's heartbreaking when you start out so fast. We want to start fast and finish strong. We have the start fast down, we are just not finishing strong. That is when it really counts.

Q: People are starting to call out the seniors. Do you see that?

Young: No. I saw that Brian said something. He is a stand up guy. He might speak for the seniors, they might have put a big burden on them. But this is a complete team effort. On the offensive side, we only have so many seniors starting anyway, so it would be wrong for us to put all the weight on them, because we are all playing, too. Leadership comes from everywhere. I consider myself a leader and I am a sophomore. You cannot put it on one class. This is a team effort. It's as simple as that.

Q: You have to be disappointed in this season.

Young: Definitely. Nobody thought about being where we are right now and just playing for bowl eligibility, but with that being said, we are not going to say the season is over. We still want to get to a bowl game and that is a goal each season. To some extent it has been disappointing, because of so many losses. Nobody wants that many losses in their conference. But we are still fighting for something. We have to get to a bowl game.

Q: How do you pick yourselves up off the mat?

Young: You had a good illustration after the Michigan game. We had a heart breaker in our own stadium and we came out strong against Northwestern. We showed that we can still play tough football. We just have to continue that up in Madison.

Q: What do you know about Camp Randall?

Young: I have never played there. To finally be able to play in that stadium, I missed that my first year. Barry Alvarez's last game. I got to know him on a personal level. This is a big game. A trophy on the line, we are trying to get to a bowl.